Rules of conduct

Preamble

These rules of conduct explain to you the basis on which Geosfair UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Turmstraße 39, 10551 Berlin (hereinafter referred to as: “Geosfair”) operates the Geosfair service (hereinafter referred to as\: “Geosfair”).

The rules of conduct give you many practical tips for using Geosfair. They supplement the General Terms and Conditions of Business and thus become part of the contract concluded between you and Geosfair. You can call up, save and print out the current version of the General Terms and Conditions of Business and these rules of conduct on the website www.geosfair.com.

Rules are needed in a community. This also applies to the Geosfair community. The rules of conduct are to be the basis for dealings between members of the Geosfair community, in which a free exchange of information is possible and in which the rights of the individual and of the community are respected.

We have tried to keep our rules of conduct as clear as possible. If an aspect of the rules of conduct should nevertheless be unclear to you, your comments or suggestions on this are always welcome.

1. Validity of the rules of conduct, changes

Anyone who has accepted the General Terms and Conditions of Business and these rules of conduct of Geosfair can become a member at Geosfair. If you have already registered at Geosfair, you have read and accepted the General Terms and Conditions of Business and rules of conduct during the registration process.

Geosfair reserves the right to change or update the rules of conduct from time to time. If such a change could affect your rights or obligations, the change shall be effected pursuant to Clause 10 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business.

If the General Terms and Conditions of Business and the rules of conduct contradict one another, the General Terms and Conditions of Business shall have precedence.

2. Access to Geosfair

You gain access to Geosfair through an Internet connection using a common browser (e.g. Firefox 3+, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera (still to be tested), Internet Explorer 8+). You yourself are responsible for providing the hardware required for the Internet connection. Troubleshooting in the hardware that is in your area of operations is solely your responsibility. No special software is required for access to and use of Geosfair.

In the case of special technical questions in connection with access to and use of the Geosfair service, please use our service hotline during the times indicated.

3. Usage of Geosfair

When registering as a member, you will receive a member account (“account”) for the access to Geosfair under your Geosfair access name. You are entitled to such an account if you are at least 18 years old and fully capable to contract. With regard to your obligations associated with your Geosfair access and your member account, please read Clause 3 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business.

Geosfair membership cannot be transferred to third parties without the prior approval of Geosfair. This excludes cases of statutory legal succession (e.g. by means of inheritance).

If you permit another person, in particular a minor, to use your Geosfair access, your obligations of due care require you to refer them to the General Terms and Conditions of Business and rules of conduct and to exercise due control.

4. Minors

As a parent or legal guardian, you may permit minors to use your Geosfair access as a co-users. Please comply with your obligations of supervision. Geosfair is unable to preclude from the outset that content placed by the members is unsuitable for minors. Geosfair will remove unlawful content immediately after it becomes aware of this. Please remember, however, that minors whom you permit access to Geosfair will benefit more from this offering when they use it under adult supervision.

You may not use Geosfair for purposes that are unsuitable for minors (Clause 4.1 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business).

5. Your personal password

Please read Clause 3 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business on this.

Never disclose your password. Geosfair employees will never ask you for a password. If someone asks you for your password, do not reply even if this person claims to be an employee of Geosfair. We recommend changing your password frequently for security reasons. This is possible at any time under menu item “Settings”.

6. Terms of payment

Please read Clause 6 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business on this.

When registering for Geosfair, you opted for a method of payment. Once you have selected a method of payment, Geosfair is entitled to accumulate any payments incurred during a billing period, at its discretion, and to collect them at the end of or during a billing period in one or several total amounts by direct debit, or, according to your choice, by credit card. Geosfair is entitled to wait with the collection of the payments until total amounts determined by Geosfair have accumulated.

Complaints relating to direct debits must be received by Geosfair UG within 90 days of billing.

7. Data back-up

You are under the obligation to back up your data and files at regular intervals and to store them carefully. Please save all your data to the extent necessary to enable you to restore your system after a system crash.

The services of Geosfair do not release you from your obligation of due care to comply with the standard and recognised security measures for communication in data networks, such as using a regularly updated anti-virus program, checking incoming files and messages for plausibility and regularly changing your password.

8. Geosfair access names

Please read Clause 3 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business on this.

We encourage you explicitly to select creative and interesting names. We also expect, however, that you make a sensible and responsible choice. Vulgar or offensive access names can hurt the feelings of many members. It complies with the general rules of decency to consider this in the choice of your Geosfair access name.

You may not use any names of other people or a name that is protected by a trademark or other intellectual property right as your Geosfair access name. The same applies to names that breach or could breach the rights of other private individuals or legal entities.

If you are uncertain about the choice of your Geosfair access name, it is better not to select that particular name; alternatively, obtain legal advice from a qualified person.

We explicitly point out that the General Terms and Conditions of Business would also be breached by any Geosfair access names containing codes by which unlawful organisations, in particular those of the Far Right, recognise each other, even if the coded meaning of the Geosfair access name is not directly recognisable to outsiders.

9. Netiquette

Geosfair does not tolerate any behaviour that is illegal, breaches the rights of third parties or prevents other members from using and enjoying Geosfair. Beyond the statutory provisions, the General Terms and Conditions of Business and these rules of conduct contain binding rules on conduct within Geosfair. Read in particular Clause 4 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business on this.

Geosfair has the right, but not an obligation, to check all areas of Geosfair, within the framework of that which is legally permissible, for compliance with the General Terms and Conditions of Business and the rules of conduct, in particular netiquette.

In the event of breaches, Geosfair will take all measures that it deems necessary in order to stop the breach and prevent further breaches in the future. Depending on the severity and number of the breaches, Geosfair is entitled to issue warnings, to apply temporary blocks and to remove content without prior notice. In particularly severe cases, Geosfair is entitled to terminate the membership for cause without notice.

If you are disrupted by other Geosfair members or witness a breach of the General Terms and Conditions of Business or these rules of conduct, you can notify Geosfair by e-mail at the address verhaltensregeln@geosfair.com.

We point out that the following types of behaviour in particular are not permitted:

9.1 Graphics and images

It is explicitly not permitted to add graphics and images with pornographic, National Socialist, racist or religiously or otherwise discriminatory content to units.

9.2 Demagoguery

It is also not permitted to disseminate, to link to or to make general reference in Geosfair or by using Geosfair access names to content that incites racial hatred or calls for violent or arbitrary acts against sections of the population (Section 130 of the German Penal Code) or that acts as propaganda for an organisation that breaches the constitution or for the glorification of war.

Quotes of content that incites the people and their marking as a “subject of public discussion” are rated by Geosfair as a breach if there are grounds to suspect that the person responsible is using this form of depiction as camouflage for the dissemination of such content or has appropriated the quote or the subject of discussion for himself or herself. The same applies to the use of the mere pretext of distancing oneself from content, for instance through the use of disclaimers.

9.3 Depiction of violence

It is not permitted to disseminate or to make reference in Geosfair or by using Geosfair access names to content that describes acts of violence against people in a form expressing glorification or trivialisation of such acts of violence or that represents the violent or inhuman nature of the act in a manner breaching human dignity (Section 131 of the Penal Code).

9.4 Criminal pornography

It is not permitted to disseminate or to make reference in Geosfair or using Geosfair access names to content that has as its subject the sexual abuse of children or violent pornographic content (Section 184 Para. 3 of the Penal Code). Clause 9.1 remains unaffected.

9.5 Offensive communication

The Geosfair members form a community. Do not offend other members or third parties. Show tolerance and offer the respect to the other members that they deserve. In particular, personal attacks or slights or belittlement based on race, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or disability or discriminating in a similar manner breach these rules of conduct and the General Terms and Conditions of Business. And please remember that children can also be online.

9.6 Harassment

It is harassment when a member makes contact with another member in order to impose himself or herself on the other person against the latter’s (presumed) will, to force attention or to disturb or torment that member in any other way. Geosfair does not tolerate members being harassed or even threatened.

9.7 Falsification of identity

You may not pretend to be another individual or legal entity. In particular, you may not pretend to be another member, a well-known figure or an employee of Geosfair. Please note this in particular with respect to your choice of Geosfair access names, which should not generate any risk of mistaken identity. The falsification of sender details, for example by changing the sender line in internal e-mails (“header”), is not permitted.

9.8 Unwanted e-mails, chain letters, snowball systems

Your Geosfair membership makes it possible for you to send and receive e-mails within Geosfair or the Internet. However, the sending of e-mails is not permitted if you have to assume that your e-mail is unwanted by the recipient (“spam”). Mass mails, in particular for advertising purposes, are prohibited without the prior written approval of Geosfair.

It would be a breach of these rules of conduct and thus the General Terms and Conditions of Business if you were to collect Geosfair access names of members to use them for mass mails.

The transmission of chain letters and the dissemination of messages in a snowball or pyramid system (“junk mails”) is not permitted at Geosfair. Such material wastes system resources and is seen by many members as a nuisance. Most chain letters and snowball systems are also illegal. The same applies to offers for merchandise or services offered in chain or snowball systems.

Geosfair reserves the right to take all necessary legal and technical measures to avoid the transmission of spam and junk mails within Geosfair or to prevent this for the future.

9.9 Advertising

Geosfair may not be used to communicate or disseminate any kind of unwanted advertising to other members. If Geosfair is to be used for advertising purposes aimed at the Geosfair members, this requires the prior written approval of Geosfair.

9.10 Hacking, viruses

Any use of Geosfair that jeopardises the integrity and performance of Geosfair represents misuse. Geosfair may not be used to penetrate into third-party IT systems or parts thereof (“hacking”) or to destroy, damage or hinder the systems of Geosfair or those of third parties, for instance through targeted overloading, the dissemination of viruses or comparable harmful intervention. Access to third-party systems with the aid of unlawfully obtained keys or codes is prohibited.

9.11 Collaboration

All users of Geosfair are called upon to inform Geosfair about any illegal content or conduct of other users.

10. Rights to content

Via Geosfair, you are provided with information in the form of texts, possibly software, photos, videos, graphics, music, sounds and other materials and services (jointly referred to as: “content”).

This content is placed onto Geosfair by Geosfair members and is third-party content from Geosfair’s perspective. Geosfair merely makes available the platform for the publication and dissemination of such content. Geosfair has no editorial control over third-party content. Geosfair does not monitor the content in advance, and in light of the volume of content that is placed onto Geosfair it is not able to do so either.

Geosfair offers third parties a platform for their content, but Geosfair does not adopt this content as its own and will therefore not approve it or give an opinion against it, let alone process it. Clause 5.4 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business remains unaffected.

The responsibility for the third-party content lies solely with the Geosfair member who placed the content onto Geosfair, not with Geosfair. If, however, Geosfair becomes aware that third-party content breaches the General Terms and Conditions of Business, these rules of conduct or current German legal regulations, or breaches the rights of third parties, Geosfair will react pursuant to the General Terms and Conditions of Business and remove the content, if applicable. Read in particular Clause 4 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business on this.

11. Intellectual property rights

Please note that you must comply with national and international copyright if you place content onto Geosfair or store content on your computer that other Geosfair members have provided for downloading. You may only place content onto Geosfair, which is not subject to an intellectual property right (e.g. copyrights) or for which the holder of the intellectual property right has given their explicit consent for dissemination in services such as Geosfair. All protected content disseminated by you is to include a reference to the intellectual property right, irrespective of other information required by law, such as “© [name of the copyright holder]” or “Usage by permission of…”.

If you transfer shareware or other software to Geosfair, you grant Geosfair a licence for the duration of the contract concluded with you regarding the usage of Geosfair to copy this software, make it publicly accessible and, if you want to give other Geosfair members this opportunity, to make it available online for downloading worldwide via the Geosfair offering at www.geosfair.com. We draw your attention to the fact that you may restrict and modify a licence for the user by instructions in the transferred software. In such cases, Geosfair is not obliged to check the compliance with or enforcement of such instructions. Geosfair reserves the right to remove software at any time from the Geosfair offering without giving reasons.

Geosfair is also entitled to highlight content placed by you as particularly accomplished or interesting on Geosfair or to publicise it in a special way.

The prohibited placement of protected content on Geosfair represents a breach of the General Terms and Conditions of Business and of the relevant intellectual property right and may result in liability on the part of the Geosfair member towards the holder of the intellectual property right. Each member should remember that not Geosfair but the member is liable for any breach of rights by such unauthorised usage or transfer.

12. Contracts relating to merchandise or services

Should you buy merchandise or use services from third parties (e.g. other Geosfair members) through the use of Geosfair, Geosfair will not become a contractual party in these contracts that you conclude with third parties. Geosfair is not liable for any merchandise or services offered via Geosfair. This also applies when the merchandise or services are advertised by the third party on Geosfair. Geosfair cannot act as mediator in the event of disputes.

13. Termination or end of your membership

Please read Clause 9 of the General Terms and Conditions of Business on this.

The key date for the termination is the date on which your notification of termination is received by Geosfair. A termination of the Geosfair membership by third parties on your behalf is only possible when a legally valid power of attorney is submitted at the same time.

14. Member support

We hope that you will enjoy using Geosfair.

If you have any questions on Geosfair, you can reach our support team at service@geosfair.com.

As per: February 2011